This week as part of my Creative Learning Partnerships’ author residency, I’ve worked with seven classes of Year 8 students at Keilor Downs College sharing how I create characters for books like Beyond Belief. We’ve been discussing how vulnerability, admirability and credibility combine to create characters that readers connect with. Of course characters don’t have to be completely admirable but there has to be something that readers like about them. And vulnerability is something that helps us build compassion for characters and care what happens to them. It has been so rewarding working wi ..read more

I have just started a new author residency working with a creative and engaged group of Year 8 students at Keilor Downs College. We worked on developing characters with goals, problems and emotional needs. I love spending time working with young creators and inspiring them to tell their stories. Each student chose an image and developed a character profile using their imaginations and questions around what the person was doing and feeling when the photo was taken and what their emotional needs might be. The author residency is thanks to Creative Victoria’s Creative Learning Partnerships pro ..read more

Let’s Play by Karen Tyrrell is a FUN interactive picture book for kids aged 0 to 5 focussing on play, illustrated by Maddi Gray at Little Brother and Co, published by Play Matters Australia. Come discover all the fun and exciting ways children play. From supporting children’s development, to the joys of playing together, there’s plenty to celebrate about play! The Inspiration behind Let’s Play My goal was to write a FUN interactive picture book about play that kids and families would love to read together. A story that children could sing, clap along, do playful actions, and connect with thei ..read more

Today, Karen Tyrrell visits DeeScribewriting with words to inspire you. KAREN TYRRELL is a Brisbane award-winning child empowerment author, teacher, keynote speaker and workshop presenter with a lived experience of anxiety. Karen is a proud Children’s Rights Ambassador for Queensland and an Australia Reads Ambassador. She writes commissioned children’s books for large organizations. Play Matters Australia commissioned Karen to write Let’s Play which will be OUT later this year. Karen wrote ANDY & GHOST BOY to empower kids to live strong. www.karentyrrell.com/mybooks ABOUT ANDY & GHOS ..read more

My father aged 15 My father would have been 100 years old today. He missed that milestone by just two years, leading a long and colourful life in spite of uncertain beginnings. In 1939, he and his parents fled Hitler’s Nazi regime in fear of their lives. He left his Austrian birthplace at 15, and never saw his homeland again. Hitler took away his citizenship and he couldn’t return to live there, but he would have liked to go back for a visit. Somehow it never happened. But my father left us an unexpected legacy, something I didn’t give much thought to as a child, He left us our heritage. And l ..read more

Nean McKenzie is a children’s writer and optometrist who lives in western Melbourne with her family. Nean has had two middle grade books published with MidnightSun Publishing called Cryptosight and Xenoflight. In July this year a third book Timefire is coming out. Nean enjoys running and travelling to interesting places around the world. ABOUT TIMEFIRE Timefire is about Gilbert Black who travels back in time from 2033 to big bushfires in Australia’s history. He searches across the years, determined to unlock the secret to his family’s legacy and for what happened to his mother during the 2020 ..read more

Today, Gabrielle Basset is visiting DeeScribe Writing to inspire you with her new book and to talk about her creative process. ABOUT GABRIELLE My name is Gabrielle and I first started my career as a Microbiologist. I then hung up my white coat and started recruiting Scientists instead. Fast forward many years, I now work for an Australian University but still in recruitment as that is what I love to do – to find other people their dream jobs.  I had always dreamed of writing a children’s book. However, lockdown was the catalyst to kickstart that dream. At the time I was finishing a large ..read more

I loved Neridah McMullin’s latest book, Evie and Rhino so much that I was compelled to blog about it here. It’s the heartwarming story of a connection between a human and an animal, and the healing power of friendship. Evie and Rhino is historical fiction for middle grade readers (and adults) inspired by an actual event. Evie and Rhino features kind-hearted, animal loving Evie and a rhino who swam ashore after the shipwreck of the SS Bancoora in 1891. The ship ran aground off Buckleys Beach, a beautiful and wild part of the Australia that the author clearly knows well, and has brought it to l ..read more

I’m passionate about history of any kind and love stepping back into past through a good book, so I couldn’t wait to delve into the world of Mary Bligh in That Bligh Girl. And I wasn’t disappointed in Sue Williams latest historical fiction. (Published by Allen & Unwin) That Bligh Girl is the fascinating story of Governor Bligh’s independent and strong-willed daughter, Mary who is thought of as a troublemaker by her own father, and others for refusing to conform to society’s expectations of women in the 18th Century. When Bligh is appointed Governor of the colony of New South Wales an ..read more

Marlene Rattigan has written short stories for children as well as picture books and articles for and about children in various magazines here in Australia and the UK. She is the author of the kidz-fiz-biz series of music and movement books, She has presented at many conferences and PD (professional development) sessions here and internationally, and in her spare time, she also works as an editor and proof-reader as well as looking after five grandchildren. The inspiration for Nico came when she saw a caged bird in the florist’s shop on the Bologna railway station. ABOUT NICO Nico is a show-o ..read more